Join KLRU’s In Context for a special performance by Austin musician James Polk. RSVP here

James Polk has been a part of Austin’s jazz scene since the ’60s when he attended Huston-Tillotson College. In the late ’70s, Polk was an organist for the Ray Charles Orchestra and was arranger for two of Charles’ Grammy-nominated songs “Ain’t It So” and “I Wish You Were Here Tonight.” He returned to Austin in the ’80s to pursue his education and to teach others. He retired from teaching in 2006 and he received his Professor Emeritus status of Jazz Studies in the School of Music at Texas State University in San Marcos. Polk has been inducted into the Austin Chronicle Music Poll Hall of Fame.

In Context reflects the arts culture in Austin’s community and explores the creative people and unique things which make our lives more interesting. It provides a glimpse into the lives of people who follow their dreams, the poets of form and function, the obscure, the inspiring, the strange and the beautiful